Botswana�s poorest village cries out
Lebogang Baingapi | Friday July 8, 2016 15:11
Between Keng and Khakhea villages along the Tsabong road, a turn to the right and a seven-kilometre gravel road will take you to Kutuku, officially the country’s poorest settlement or village.
According to the 2015 study, of the 166 residents in the settlement, at least 100 were classified as poor or earning less than P1,332 per month. Basic needs such as food, clothing, personal hygiene, services, shelter and others were beyond the reach of these residents, according to the Statistics Botswana study.
As is the norm in similar settlements across the country, visitors arriving in Kutuku are met by groups of roaming livestock and villagers trudging along the gravel road to their homes, unruffled by the blasts of dust passing vehicles blow their way.
A water tank, which services the entire settlement and has evidently not been repaired in a long time, stands tall near the kgotla. Water leaks from the tank and below, livestock gather to lap up the precious drops. Everyone in Kutuku knows each other and after a few enquiries, the Mmegi news crew is led to where the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson, Omphemetse Thojane stays. Thojane was a nominated councillor at the Jwaneng Town Council between 2009 and 2014. When her term expired, she packed her bags and relocated to Kutuku, where the contrast in living standards was difficult to adjust to. Fortunately, she was handed a lifeline as her fellow villagers handed over the VDC chairmanship to her. “Life in Kutuku is not easy. The only source of employment is Ipelegeng and affirmative action is not working for us,” she explains in an interview.
Affirmative action is a government initiative, which allows rural dwellers to be given preference for government positions available within their areas. However Thojane can only think of three people employed through affirmative action since 2013.
Kutuku has a primary school which only enrols Standards One and Two. Learners, after this, continue their studies at Mabutsane, accommodated at the Rural Area Dwellers (RADs) hostels from where they proceed to Standard Seven.
The arrangement is not popular with parents in Kutuku who have noted poor performances of those in the RADs hostels. Some have withdrawn their children and transferred them to public schools in villages such as Kokotsha, Khonkhwa, Keng and Ithokole.
According to Thojane, Kutuku currently has 46 pupils who are eligible for accommodation at the hostels in Mabutsane, but parents have since transferred 20 pupils from the hostels to other villages.
“Our kids are failing in Mabutsane because there is overcrowding at the hostels and no-one helps them with assignments,” she explains. “In fact, they are just there for accommodation and nobody assists them in their school work and welfare.” Assistant minister of local government and rural development, Botlogile Tshireletso heard pleas on the matter during a recent visit to Kutuku, where parents prayed for the extension of their school to accommodate Standards Three to Seven.
Education, however, is not Kutuku’s only challenge. The area has poor electrical supply, which has hampered the establishment of businesses and consequently employment. Carpentry and blacksmith enterprises which were funded through Rural Area Dwellers Programme (RADP) were forced to close down as a result of the poor electricity connection and supply. According to Thojane, the only operating business in the settlement is a bakery which supplies the RADs hostel with bread. The business barely makes a profit and the meagre revenues are shared among its four workers. The sole tuckshop recently hiked its prices, stretching its products above the reach of nearly the whole settlement.
“People here could also try their luck in tuckshops through the poverty eradication programme and perhaps even benefit from the tendering of destitute and orphanage monthly ration. However, the problem is electricity.” Even as desperate as the situation appears, villagers in Kutuku have begun wiring their homes with the hope that the Botswana Power Corporation will bring electricity to the area.